Unlike Intel, AMD was unable to report record revenues. What they were able to report was a small profit. They also were able to show some growth above that expected by most analysts, and even those in AMD. Earlier this quarter AMD warned that revenues might not be as high as expected, but in the end AMD seemed to have done ok.

The company had a gross revenue of $1.69 billion, which is well above the expected $1.66 billion many analysts were predicting. Net profit for the quarter came in at a reasonable $97 million. This is a big improvement from Q3 2010, which had a net income of -$118 million. Being positive for a quarter is a big accomplishment for AMD. Controlling costs as a fabless semiconductor company is a lot easier as compared to running multiple Fabs and researching and implementing next generation process nodes. Margins increased to 45%, but are still a far cry from the 60% plus that Intel achieves. ASPs are also down due to the large amount of low priced, 45 nm parts that AMD still sells.

The primary movers for the positive results for AMD are their lineup of APUs. The “Bobcat” based APUs have been a success for quite a few months, and with their superior performance and features as compared to the competing Intel Atom series, AMD is making a tidy sum off of them. The big winner in the APU sector is of course Llano. The uptake on this processor in the mobile space has been tremendous. AMD has seen a 35% increase in mobile sales, and when combined with the already strong Brazos/Ontario platform, AMD is finally a factor in the mobile market. The only real issue in this market that AMD is facing is that of continued poor yields on Llano processors.

Thanks to a leak from AMD, we have new information on their plans for tablets and ultra mobile platforms. Hondo will be a member of Brazos-T, the planned improvement to the current low power version of Brazos which goes by the name of Desna. This is not so much a new chip as a refining of Brazos and the Ontario APU, the 1GHz APU will still be made on a 40nm process and sport a DirectX 11 GPU at 276MHz also optimized for lower power consumption and heat production. The Hudson controller is also being tweaked in the same way, with the chipset's TDP sitting at 1W compared to the ~4W the APU will consume. It should be capable of playing 720p videos at that power setting, though you can expect a bit more power draw if you are streaming the movie wirelessly. You can read more about the future of the new fanless APU from AMD at The Inquirer.

"CHIP DESIGNER AMD is planning to refresh its Brazos platform in time for Microsoft's Windows 8.

AMD launched its Brazos platform last year, though actual products tipped up earlier this year featuring a dual core processor and a DirectX 11 GPU. However with Windows 8 coming out in 2012, it is a little surprising that leaked slides point to AMD planning a refresh of Brazos, codenamed Hondo. According to the slides, Hondo is designed to operate with passive cooling, and have 2W "app power" usage, about half that of the current Brazos chips."